The family

Second post in the same month! Don't die of heart attack already xD There are many csk matches for inducing that . In another two days 'SS&S' [semi's stories and sharing's needs a nickname too :P ]

will turn three years old. This year has been a silent one to say the least :- 18 posts in 12 months = blasphemy . I saw this blog with 26 posts in one month! While even Dravid accepts that he can never be a gayle , he still has to perform in his own style to retain his place in the team. Similarly , I need to post more regularly to call myself a blogger :| Okay inconsistency rant over. 
And strangely enough 'sss' has crossed a milestone quietly even when there were no posts to fuel her :P sss has crossed 50,000 views *Fake applause* and it seems only like yesterday I was mulling over 10,000 views. 

...Aand this is also my 91st post!! Why does 91 warrant a mention?
a) My second favorite home ( cousin's place) is called that
b) 9*9 = 81 ( my favorite square no. :P ) + 10 ( god's no. = Happy b'day Sachin Ramesh TENdulkar <3) = 91 LOL.
c) I forgot to celebrate  the 90th post :|







Today I am going to write about ze topic ' family' . Partly because it is the 91st post and because I never usually write about them. Also because I read Mario Puzo's 'Family' __/\__

For the review of the book , click -->  here

Disclaimer - A personal post with a lot of I and me's :P 

So yeah lets talk about family. I live with my parents , brother and grandparents. Two characters who stand out distinctly and complete my life in unique ways are my grandmom who I call 'pattimma' and my newly found love <3 = my dog Laika!

Pattimma
She is simply amazing. I can write a book about her ( maybe i will) and it will sell a  million copies. She is a sociologist's delight. Orthodox in the expected ways and progressive in alarming ways. My incessant and annoying amount of talking can be attributed to here genes :P She can talk about tamil serials one minute and switch to complaining about the scarcity of helps in the next. Above all she loves yelling at me and brother with the most hilarious abuses ( from our viewpoint atleast) and we love ignoring it and provoking her to yell even more ^_^

What does the word 'pattimma' mean? It is an unique connotation developed by me after I began to speak. It combines the normal 'patti' ( meaning: granny) with the all important 'amma' ( mother) . For many years I thought I was the only person to use it. However sadly , my dreams were shattered when i saw many old movies where this term was used widely. Whatever. At least my family acted as if I invented it <3  and I bet i'm the only one to use 'thathappa' .
When she was young , she used to walk plenty of kilometers and catch a train and walk plenty more to reach her school. Yet , she is adamant about me cycling to my school which is only 10 minutes away from home. She actually got double promotion from second grade to fourth as she got 100 in all subjects :O if only she had completed her schooling , she would be ruling the world by now.
I am not kidding . she has photographic memory and can remember dates and events alarmingly well . She once amazed the neighbors by correcting the year THEY settled in chennai and the year THEIR DAUGHTER got married :P She remembers the color of sari she wore to every marriage ( and let me tell you , the list is 'quite' long) and can easily detect the lies we say , when they don't coincide with the previous ones :/ And i can't even remember her b'day. Y u no transmit me your good genes? :P
Her managerial skills are amazing as well. Only a taskmaster can make me work - and well , she is one. She gently cajoles the first time , and annoyingly persists with the request. And if i'm still acting dumb , she lets her high pitched voice and past memories of hardships and present bad health do the trick . Ah , grandmothers.
'Saniane' , 'panni' , 'abhistoo' , 'motachi' and other censor-able words  flow from her mouth :P and I love her the most <3 :')

She has the most hilarious contingency plans for disasters. Remember last year when everyone was convinced world was going to end and there was a small tremor in chennai?  The news channels were harping about how the tsunami was going to swallow us all and we live quote close to the beach. So what does pattimma do? Goes quickly to the safe and starts wearing all the golden ornaments! Convinced that she had finally lost it I asked her what she she was doing. And she solemnly explains that if the tsunami 'carries' us away , we'll at least survive with the gold wherever we land xP

Laika
I am not much of a dog person or an animal lover. I don't run away when i see them nor do I go hug and go gaga over them . Pretty much neutral ( semi xP )  towards them .However , when this dog landed up in our backyard , I wasn't very happy to have it around. This can be attributed to my suspicions that my brother must have smuggled it there. However , gradually in her own doggy way 'Laika' has spread her charm over our lives. She hates dogs , thinks she can challenge dobermans and alsations o.O ( very distorted self concept) , wants to fly like the crows - insanely jealous of them and hence chases them  and is scared of cats.

She is rowdy rathore no. 1 :P one cool ragamuffin . Kills you with affection when you are pre occupied and makes you feel guilty for your insolence and indolence towards her. However , when you try to go hug and be nice to her - she acts all cool and begins sleeping :P  She sleeps when she is bored , happy ,tired , angry. In different positions . Very funny ones :)
She has become my best friend in this last one year and I cannot imagine a life without her . This is for you laika  :* :* <3

Pattima + laika = I never thought the combination will work. But it does :O Tired of taking care of human babies all her life , pattimma is now deeply in love with this doggy baby xD She had gone for some marriage and was not home for 2 days. She calls  ME with GREAT concern and inquired if l LAIKA had eaten. There arouse my human envy. If I was any younger , I would have plotted her murder - like i planned my brother's :P

Ore the comedy pah! :P

First of all , it feels GREAT to write in this draftboard again ^_^
........and there was a mini break of 6 hours due to 2 ipl matches. This has been the story of my poor blog for a few months now. Board preparations , board itself (40 days *yawns*)  and now ipl , clat preparations ( soon to be started :P ) and the overwhelming urges to read a book , go party or  watch a movie.
.....and there again. I got distracted by facebook and its insane amount of memes. 

Second of all, I would really thank all the readers who were patient for these few months and for increasing my page views even when there were no new posts :P I love you guys :* I shall dedicate my upcoming 50,000 views to you all. 
And now time to pen up. Forgive me if i'm a bit scratchy for this is my first post in months. 

Board examinations are always a pain , that too especially if they extend over 40 days for 5 exams. So on April ninth, two thousand and thirteen when the cursed exams did get over , I felt that the world was my cricket ball ( because football is too mainstream) and decided to goto this 'comedy film' called settai. The thing which quirked me was the synopsis - The remake of the 'A' certified Delhi Belly which has been made into a 'clean' family entertainer and has managed to get a 'U' certificate. The director was also quiet proud when he said it. So BELIEVING him I took my whole family plus two people to the movie.

Two puked pop corns and countless crass jokes later I had to face my annoyed family sheepishly . Although my brother did love it! ( well , he starts laughing if you say S**t)  My problem with the movie wasn't that it had innumerable unfunny yet disgusting 'jokes' or that it didn't have even a wafer thin plot  but that it got an U certificate. What were the makers thinking when they thought they could remake this into a family friendly affair?

Oh god . In the pursuit of writing something , I am just becoming one of innumerable  rant-about-my-life bloggers. So no more negative energy. Instead, I am going tell you about movies which are funny and have some story and 'acting' ( the only person who acted in this movie was the comedy super star) in it.
Why this move towards indigenous regional movies you might ask. Well the answer is :
a) I love them
b) If review raja is proud of my culture , it is time that I am .
c) Tamil cinema does have a flourishing heritage of comedy actors and films.


So here is my second 'trendistan' list. Tamil comedy movies which you shouldn't miss ( which are at least better investments of your time and money than settai)

3. Boss (a) Baskaran - Almost the exact cast as settai but 100000000 times  funnier. For a change , Arya acted and Santhanam was at his epicest . The story is about Baskar aka boss , a good for nothing wastrel who still hasn't even passed his twelfth examinations and falls in love with his sister in law's sister - who is an english teacher! Boss is insulted by his whole family when he expresses his wish to marry her and is out there to prove a point. Watch him run a tutorial successfully and sort out the messes which occur after that. The movie was hilarious for only one reason: santhanam! He comes as Arya's barber friend who signs the collateral for the hero's loan. The movie has made some phrases like 'nanbenda' ( friend dude :P )  and 'vida muyarchi  vishwaroopa vetri' (persistent hard work , monumental victory) popular. Don't miss one of the funniest films to have come out of the tamil industry in recent times.

2.Michael Madana kamarajan - Everyone knows kamal as an experimental actor who keeps pushing boundaries. Another thing everyone knows about him is that there is always some humor element in his films. So much so that , people have criticized his magnum opus 'dasavatharam' (where he plays 10 roles) for treating such heavy content too lightly. While  his recent movies like 'Panchatantiram' 'pammal k sambandham' 'vasool raja MBBS' are more popular for being funny , his most hilarious film (according to me ) is mmkr. Released at a time when double action itself was difficult , he pulled off 4 roles with elan.
The story is about quadruplets who get separated at birth. One is raised by his father himself as an adopted son and is a stylish multimillionaire with a giant like bodyguard (bheem boy) and the catch phrase ' catch my point' He is Madan. Michael is brought up by a thief and is hired to kill madan. Next is Raju , who is our hilarious 'low class' firefighter who romances khushboo and becomes Madan's best friend. Finally we have our tam brahm - Kamu who is a cook , who marries 'thiruputasundari' and is roped in to impersonate madhan. The climax on the wooden house up the mountain is one of the best endings I've watched in my life/

Don't miss this one!

1.Thillu Mullu - What can top a Kamal comedy film? A Rajini one of course! xD ( that too with a kamal cameo in the end!) This film directed by the great  Balachander makes you laugh every time you watch it. It has been remade in hindi by the name 'Bol Bachchan' which has crossed 100 crores. Still people rightly argue that the original was 5486431 times better. Rajini plays the role of 'ayyampettai arivudainambi kaliyaperumal chandran' who is a rebel by nature but acts all innocent to woo his very conservative and patriotic boss ( acted stunningly be thengai srinivasan) Now what happens when chandran falls in love with his boss's daughter?  He loses his mustache and becomes his twin brother Indran of course ;)  Don't you miss this marathon of comic escapades , lies and situations .

Special mention :

Vadivelu in winner - ever heard of the word one man army? Vadivelu's role basically uplifted a common masala film into a super hit entertainer . 
Now there we go , I've written a post. Hope I shell out more int the future and I promise you better quality next time around. Till then keep yourselves entertained with these movies xD

Know what else is hilarious?
Gordon Ramsay memes ------> Here.


ROTFLMAO
Semi :)

Trendistan: Ze gods!!

Lets take a moment off and acknowledge the fact that there is going to be a post. I have been mentally planning and constructing this post for soo long ( since NOVEMBER 2012! :O ) I never thought it would see the daylight. Ladies and Gents , here it is ze 'trendistan' . Semi's version of 'my fives / my lists' :P The lists are random as they get..

Soo what is it going to be this time?! Religion , god ......... INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. Well this trend has been in vogue for the past....3000 years .But in the past few years , it has been trending a lot thanks to Amish tripati's Shiva trilogy and Ashwin sanghvi's - Krishna key , chanakya's chant... ( This is what we get when we stop writing romance...BRILLIANCE) and an all new serial of 'Mahabharata' has started in sun tv on a magnum opus budget. All these egs show us that Indian mythology is definitely trending and I am going to analyse the lesser know characters of Mahabharata .
Before going into the topic , i want to dive into one more seemingly tangential issue - the ever growing zest to curb Right to freedom of expression , in favor of  religious fundamentalism and bigotism. Bal thackeray - facebook issue , my name is khan, vishwaroopam (which was nothing but a dumb action film) ,Salman Rushdie's and Taslima Nasreen's continuous saga with Calcutta and countless other instances has shown us at least one thing. There is a need to understand religion and the true meaning of secularism . Through this post I want to tell you how authors humanized godly figures - and how we seem to cling onto the belief that the opposite is true. Every god went through a hurdle to show that everybody has faults. We should always keep this in mind.
ok chup.

My fascination with Indian mythology was an early one - grandmother telling stories of ramayana during power cuts ( so obviously quite a lot :P )  , dad buying me colorful books of Mahabharata to read - I was this strange kid who loved to spend her sundays watching the tamil dubbed version of mahab on sun tv.

To all those who have been frowning quizzically at the word 'Mahabharata' - It is nothing but an enormous Indian epic about two sets of warring cousins - kauravas and Pandavas of the kuru ruling lineage , who fought for power in a HUGE war of kurukshetra for over 20 days. And duh the good guys, the pandavas won - Yudhishtra , Bheema , Arjuna , Nakula and Sahadeva ; Arjuna's uncle lord krishna xD ; their polyandric wife - Draupadi. The kauravas composed of 100 brothers of whom we get to know much , only about duryodana the eldest and dusadana. We also have Karna the generous who was duryodhana's best friend and also the secret brother of the pandavas.
And I haven't even scratched the surface yet! It is an enticing tale of love , power , greed , jealousy , vengeance and WAR. I personally prefer it over Ramayana because a) the characters are closer to human b) More divine weapons / astras  and awesome description of war and the futility of it all in the end.

Characters from Mahabharata who needed to be known/understood better.

#Respect#

1. Bhishma - Not to be confused with Bheema , he is the grand uncle of the cousins. Mahabharatha starts with him when he decides to adopt celibacy in order to get his father (shantanu) married to his step mother - Satyavati , a fishing woman. It is the descendants of this couple who give birth to Dhirithirastra and Pandu , who in turn give birth to kauravas and pandavas ( quite elaborate eh? :> ) Coming back to Bhishma , the great son of goddess Ganga - He was so upright that the gods decided to give him the choice to decide his death! So live long he did , but never once desired for the throne which he gave away to his brothers , nephews and grand nephews happily! Yet it was his shrewd mind that kept the kingdom up and running through the unstable periods of times. If everyone had been like him - there would've been no need for Mahabharata. When he decided to die during the great war - both sides paid homage to him and even adjourned  the war for him and his death anniversary is worshipped as Bhismar shanthi , where everybody has to do the funerary rights for him as he left behind no children . 
Even though bhismar was undoubtedly the greatest administrator and warrior , the epic teaches us that he couldn't control the greed of his grand nephews and couldn't side with the 'right' people in the war.

Remains anonymous

2. Yuyutsu , yes you hear me right! I am not referring to any chinese epic here but our very own Mahabharata  He is one of the least known characters of the epic - partly because he is mentioned in maybe 2 verses of the 100,000 versed anthology.   Still he stands testimony to the fact that stereotyping is always innacurate and there is always good in bad and bad in good (yin yan xP ) He is one of the 100 kauravas - yes the evil , greedy , malicious ones. He is the 100th brother or some say 101th kaurava (they didn't have calculators back then) and he was a good man. During the evil game of dice , where the pandavas were lured into gambling away all their wealth xP , freedom and were exiled to the forests , he was the only one who stood up and said what was happening was not fair. We don't know what happens to him after all that - he only has a line. A pretty poignant one if you ask me.  And he also switched sides during the war and joined the pandavas :O I readthatjustnowinWIKI. What a man link-----------> here 

credits - some awesome website-> here

3.Mahabharatha is a very male dominated story . There are few women who can be called brave in the story and among them AMBA stands tall. Hers is a fascinating story which i am going to share . Our great Bhishma was an unmatched warrior and hardly did any mistakes during his lifetime. However , when he decided to find wives for his step brother vichitravirya - he went to the swaymvar ( brides pick their husbands) of Amba . Ambika and Ambalika. Their people misperceived that he himself had come to marry them and ridiculed him - calling him old. This enraged him and he defeated every kshatriya there and abducted the princesses . Sadly Amba was attached to king Shalva and refused to be forced into marrying vichitravirya. Guts. Bhishma sent her back to Shalva , who refused to marry her as he had been publicly defeated by bhishma. Obviously honor > love. Now vichitravirya already had two wives and didn't want another one - who had someone else in her mind (irony of it) and even the old Bhishma had to refuse as he had his vow to uphold. Sick of being played volleyball with , Amba turned her hatred toward Bhishma , as she felt that he was the root cause of her suffering. As no man could beat him , she did a long penance to lord shiva who said she can defeat him in her next birth. She was born a girl in her next life - daughter of king drupada. Annoyed that she was born a girl ( girls can't fight)  , she further penanced and became a man - Shikandi and got her/his moment of glory when she defeated bhishma ( with the help of arjuna) during the war.

This is the closest we get to a courageous women story and must applaud her determination and penance.

p.s - Wow all my spellings are underlined in red o.O


Someone who missed the list by an inch - Veera Abhimanyu :') _:'(

Hope the #trend stays 

Taking the Next Step

I have been trying to broach this subject for the past 21 days now. All previous attempts have seen me run back to the very wide and warm arms of my iPad (yes not the subtlest way to put across that I am an iPad owner now :P , but hey subtlety is at a  far distance from being called my forte) . 

Deviations aside , no other two words fill me with more venomous hatred and vehement opposition than the word 'grow up' . 

a) I love the way I am 

b) I don't want to take up responsibilities of any kind

c) I have been pretty much been in the same height for the past 2-4 years -_-

But sometimes life forces us in ways we would've never predicted and even people with names like 'semi' are asked to become full. So in this blogpost i am gonna tentatively try face my own demons through an imaginary 'conversation with god' or some supernatural force above / beyond us which makes us sort our problems. Or a shrink would do i guess . 

Something like this post - one of my favorites click HERE. 

G: How do you do child?

1/2: Ahem , who is this? What are you doing in my cool dream? 

G: I see that you are having extremely strange ones even for you and thought i could be of help! 

1/2: Oh helpful you are. But NO! I am quite happy with these dreams of self torture , scrubbing clean my room , planning the marriages of my friends who aren't sixteen yet , buttering up tonnes and tonnes of toast.....Okay I see your point.

G: So let me begin ( unveils a notepad and pen out of thin air.) So have you been lately having any major life experiences? 

1/2 : Up heaving my lovely routine for the forthcoming boards can be considered a major life event? Although i can assuredly say that, it is my bvm friends who are having problems coping. 

G: what is bvm?

1/2: Aren't you supposed to be all knowing? (cynically) 

G: Oh you earthling, you really think I would be interested in each and every detail of your life? I am like your prime minister , basically running everything on the top and occasionally and even randomly involving myself in individual cases - like yours . 

1/2 : (sighs) Fine. Bvm is my old school - bala vidya mandir. And the people studying there have decided that they are going to devote the whole of their lives to an exam for the next 3 months when they have already written it some 4 times!

G: All that is tangential to what we're discussing , what you're now engaging is known as indirect resistance in psychodynamic therapic terms. 

1/2: ...

G: You are running away from the problem!

1/2: (equally energetically)  that is because i don't know what the matter is!!

G: Think think , its all hidden inside your unconscious.

1/2: Yo Sigmund Freud , its called the unconscious for a reason

G: I see you want to take the long way round. I don't have much time. But I will try indulge your request. Lets begin with your symptoms . What has been up of late?

1/2 :Well  I don't feel much hungry nowadays. Even one meal a day seems tedious

G: (cross ticking something) Next?

1/2: I feel lost even amongst my current crop of friends..

G: Hmm...( suddenly procures a virtual facebook screen) Your privacy settings are extremely flimsy. oh look! That is a nice pic of you in a saree! 

1/2: (Slightly smiles) Yeah I know . 

G: This girl called Medha asked you to make it your 'dp' and you said yes.

1/2: yeah meds. So?...

G: (accusingly) Why haven't you done so yet?

1/2: (stammeringly) I.. I.. don't know. *restoring calm* I was bored that's why. 

God pens down something in his notepad comprehensively

G: Well the diagnosis is pretty clear and obvious. I am not going to search for any more corroborative evidence...

1/2 : PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY WILL YOU!

G: unsurprisingly ,a couple of factors have coalesced to cause this. First of all admit that you are tensed about your board exams , at the end of the day , it is the single most important exam of your life which is going to determine the college which will in turn affect your material life chances and that of your children's.

1/2: only after Clat. Oops... the common law entrance exams.

G : (continuing) only after the clat. And when you were saying that your friends are worrying excessively , you were merely projecting your emotions on to your friends

1/2: They are the ones living without tv.

G.: Well that is your another ego defence. While they are taking the sensible step , you are doing what is known as reaction formation.

1/2: what's that?

G: Indulging in interests opposite of what you seek. like for example - sexually energetic men engaging men involving themselves actively in religion

1/2: No kidding

G: Hey I was merely quoting your 12th standard psychology text book. 

1/2: Go on 

G: Where was I? oh yes. Then i saw your photos and everything became pretty clear to me. You are out there in an endeavor not to grow up.

1/2: Excuse me? 

G: You simply do not want to grow up. You refuse to put up a sari as your profile picture ; even though you know it is the natural / cool thing to do :P You dream of scrubbing floors - doing some semblance of responsible house work - that is your unconscious struggling with the idea of work . Buttering toast by tonnes is doing work  for the whole family and planning marriages as you can see is simply planning marriages :) 

1/2 : Wow , Sherlock Holmes .

G: Have you gathered enough insight? Or you think I haven't worked through quite enough?

1/2: (quietly ) I see sense. ( Then progressively becomes more emotive) mom... YEs AMMA!! You think I should take the clothes from outside , fold it AND keep them in their places!!I do NOT WANT to . What is wrong with that? What is  wrong with a female not doing housework? It is my wish. Just because you want me to ; doesn't mean I have to. poi saavu 

* and she breaks down crying* ( after a while)

G: Now then then , that was more successful than i thought it be! A whole year's worth of therapy within a night ( he certainly looks pleased with himself) 

1/2 : You have caused more problems than solved it

G: My job wasn't to solve your problem ; it is for you to. I didn't create you for nothing, earthling! ( he says not unkindly) You seemed befuddled with too many interpretations , so i decided to help this once. Next time you go to a psychologist and pay fees. 

1/2: But what do i do now? 

G: Well certainly take the next step. Acknowledge who you are and that you can't be the same all the time, 

1/2: What's wrong with not wearing a sari? ( combatively again)  

G: What's wrong in publicly acknowledging that you are proud of wearing one?

1/2: I didn't post it on a public forum without being proud.

G: You were certainly embarrassed to make it your profile picture. Take the next step kid. And you know helping with the housework is your duty too. Leave aside male/female distinctions. You need to arm yourself with sustenance strategies to survive college.

1/2: Aah College....

G: That will be the next next step. You aren't ready yet , cya later kid!

1/2: one doubt

G: Yep

1/2: Why me?

G: I am you. anbe sivam.

She woke up a while later and remembered the whole dream and decided that the weirdness quotient was  definitely only increasing. She wrote down the whole conversation before the whole dream became only 'anbe sivam' in her memory. 

Hoping to inspire if not perspire

Semi

GoodReads 2012

Mightily obsessed =]

Everyone is obsessed about something. In my case , it is a pretty Loong list - Kamal Haasan , Surya , movies , cricket and last but not at all the least ...BOOKS. Throw anything at me I read it ^_^ (ie if it has any visual stimuli to apprehend :P ) Also , I am a bit compulsive about recording , organizing and reviewing every book I read. And what better place to do it than http://www.goodreads.com/   where they do all the organizing for you , give a platform to review and discuss the books , interact with authors ( I got a chance to video chat with Jeff Kinney  - of Wimpy kid fame!!) Also at the beginning of every year, you get to make a resolution - of x many books you want to read , and keep track of it!

<3 =') 

Ok that was a totally random advertisement I did . Goodreads doesn't need any advertising -_- Just spreading the awareness to those who have been living under a rock / preparing for their boards :P 

And the thing about this year's reading challenge is that I am almost close to my target!! Not like last year's 52/120 but a more realistic 50/60 which i can maybe even complete :O Who thought peeps preparing for board exams would read anything but textbooks . And i swear , I did not add my text books to the reading list , for if i did , i should have added every book 100 times :/

Inspired by facebook 'trends' - I am coming up with my own list. This one is  about the books i was lucky enough to read this year and NOT some list about best books of this year as such - I don't do shiny new books . 

Here is a bird's view of whatever i read this year - HERE 

It is pretty hard to write about all the 50 books i read. That would need another mega resolution. So its gonna be 7 excerpts as 5 seems too small and 10 too long :P  and also because of my unhealthy obsession towards 7 tables =') ( after all the years of playing snakes in my dad's phone at level 7 :P )

Disclaimer - The numbers are mere numbers. Not some ranking or chronological order. As i am not qualified / bothered enough to do both.

1. 39 clues - Pretty much dominated the latter part of my year. To begin with it is so easy and fun to read! It is like reading an action packed movie . something like a book version of spykids :D Sure to attract young readers , it has found unlikely takers in stressed out older men/ women who don't mind having a breezy and almost a no brainer kind of a  book . The series has a total of ten books and it has another stream of series - Cahills vs vespers to its credit. The story is about adorable orphans Amy and Dan , the good guys who find that their family is the most powerful on earth. And they decide to give up a million dollars to sign up for the most thrilling life risking clue hunt of anybody's life to save the fate of the world. We get to goto places like Vienna , Paris , China , Korea , Australia , Russia , Africa , Caribbean and England and meet evil relatives like the kabras , Holts , Wizards and Hos . An apt book for a train journey ,which you can't really remember after a while - in a good way :) But please don't read it and ask for a logical explanation. Its like  questioning James bond / Rajinikanth.

Really wants to know what goes on in her head xO 

2.Agatha Christie all the way - Although i've been reading her for quite a while now , I was lucky enough to discover some interestingly different book of hers. The Endless Night is one of the few chilling books you will ever read. The books starts on a bright note, with Michael Rogers , an ambitious young man getting to own his dream house and the woman of his dreams - who his also  pretty rich. The land where his house is built is supposed to be cursed by the gypsies and i don't want to reveal much more as I may reveal the spoiler. Even if you do know the twist do read the book ; i read it with perfect knowledge and still was taken aback! A true master piece . I also read seven dials mystery which has a fresh and energetic 'bundle'  as the female lead , very different from the normal miss marple or poirot. Even with Mr.Poirot we find some interesting variances , when in the ABC murders  he is forced to stop a murder from happening rather than find the killer who is responsible. And again a very truly imaginative if not far fetched ending. I strongly recommend you the read all the three gems :)

1. 3.Growing up has never been this poignantly portrayed before . This can be said about to kill a mockingbird  , which is one of the stellar classics of recent times.  Here Scout is a school going girl in the southern suburbs of USA . The tom sawyer like appeal will grown on into you and you will be batting for her , when her brother starts finding her too young to hang out with and the exciting court trials and the mysterious neighbor who is presumed to be a ghost prove to be cherries on a very well made and delicious cake , which is to kill a mocking bird.  Another one of this same genre is the OUTSIDERS  a very realistic book on Teenage Gangster groups in America whose unlikely lead Ponyboy and his buddies/brothers are the proverbial underdogs who we get to know and root for. A Tiny girl's life is captured in A tree grows in Brooklyn  which tells us about hope amidst poverty and difficulties. All the three books are truly great masterpieces whose geniusness I'm in vain failing to capture. Please just go read them and share my excitement! :) 

1. 4.Mrs. Frisby and the rats of the nimh  will be the biggest surprise package if you ever read it! Covered and blurbed like a 7 year old's Aesop Fable , this book is all BUT that . Talk about an head fake! The book is about mrs.Frisby the caring mice and mum , who has to find an antidote to her son's illness before winter ends. She is advised by the wise owl to go and get the rats help. Now the rats are sinister creatures who have an agenda of their own . They want to start their own civilization. How? Why? when? Where? What? READ THE BOOK. 

1. 5.Indian Mythology has never been made cooler. Amish Tripathi , has proved to be one of the best writing talents who has emerged out of India. Immortals of meluha  proves beyond doubt why it is not over rated and why every Indian needs to be proud of it. We have the cool and democratic Shiva who is the head of his tribal clan and smokes chillum whenever he is bored \m/ He is called in to settle in Suryavanshi region , where people believe him to be the descendant of Rudra due to his blue neck ( neelakanta xD ) Will he discover the god in himself and rise to the occasion? Are the enemies truly the enemies? and will the nagas ever be defeated? The book answers all these questions and is a celebration of Indian gods and their stories, if not very accurately so. And sorry for forgetting the romance between Shiva and shakthi =') 

1. 6.Satires both on religion and politics made an imprint in my fantabulous reading year.  When i first took 1984  i thought it was a sci fi kind of novel which I would never enjoy.  I turned out to be grossly incorrect . Lucky moi! The book is situated in a parallel world where WAR IS PEACE.FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. It is what would have happened if communists and nazis formed a dystopian coalition . There is the thought police to monitor your ideas and the sad part is you are forced to believe that you truly believe something you don't actually believe in . A truly great novel which every person must read to value his right to freedom of speech and expression ; and fight for it. On the other hand Kiran Desai's Hullabaloo in Guava orchard is truly hilarious , showing how Indians are ready to believe anybody to be a saint and how religion is one of the most profitable businesses . Pick it up to if you wanna laugh till your stomach hurts xD 

cutest shock faced i could find :P 

1. 7.No list of mine is complete without having a Jeffrey Archer book :O <3 the best author ever and my forever rolemodel!! This is what i wrote on Mrach 27th after reading the book  "This is the BEST book I have read in the 16 years of my life. Sure I am an archer fan , but my expectations weren't really high after the average only time will tell (with a stunning finish though)BUT OH MY GOD. I started reading the book at about 4 thinking I would read some chaps during the two hour power cut. Being lazy nowadays - I had convinced myself I am losing my appetite for books. But Archer just proved that my tummy is destined for unseen obesity levels!  Like another reviewer wrote , the book just sucked me in and didn't let me move an inch till the very last page , cursing the author for not writing more and now here I am waiting for the release of the next book.the sins of father , has everything a Jeffrey Archer book has. right from the prison accounts which are a trademark ever since the author's brief stay in the prison to the war and political aspects which are found in almost all his books. There is also the 'unseen' romance like paths of glory and hell! EVERYTHING that you could ask for.Harry clifton , Giles Barrington and Emma and Maise and surely Sir walter barrington maybe the most regal and awesome characters created EVER. It is sad how all the friends who help these characters die =( but someone has to die in the was right? :P   P.S - Semi is back to the reading business B| "    It sure did bring me back  to the readin busyness :D ^_^